


After the Storm

by purajobot935



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death Fix, Fix-It, Inspired by Art, Inspired by Music, M/M, Post-Transformers: The Movie (1986), Song Lyrics, Tissue Warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-12
Updated: 2014-10-12
Packaged: 2018-02-20 21:00:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2442980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purajobot935/pseuds/purajobot935
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes he wondered if Optimus Prime coming back from the dead was a good thing. While most Autobots rejoiced at his return, Jazz had gone out of his way to avoid the resurrected Commander. It was almost as if looking at him was too painful, especially when he considered the fact that he had come back alone.</p><p>... Or had he?</p>
            </blockquote>





	After the Storm

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published May 2008

**After the Storm**

All night long it stormed throughout the valley that housed Autobot City. Lightning flashed, thunder crashed and howling winds hurled rain at just about everything. Hound, despite his nature-loving tendancies, was for once glad that he was on the inside of the glass pane as large drops splattered incessantly on the other side.

Behind him, the room was dim and empty, save for the figure curled up on one of the couches and he turned away from the storm to survey the mech lying there. Letting out a quiet sigh, he went over to him and crouched by the arm-rest on which the other’s head lay.

“Jazz, go back to your quarters and get some sleep,” he advised.

“Leave me alone, Hound,” was the soft reply.

“You can't recharge in here.”

“Says who?”

“If Prime finds you in this state…” Hound gestured to the few empty cubes that littered the table in front of the saboteur.

“Then he can put me in the brig for all I care.”

“Jazz, please…”

“Hound, just let me be.” Lightning reflected off his darkened visor. “Let me at least watch the storm in peace and try to forget he exists.”

Sadly, the scout stood and moved away, shaking his head slightly as he headed to the door. Sometimes he wondered if Optimus Prime coming back from the dead was a good thing. While most Autobots rejoiced at his return, Jazz had gone out of his way to avoid the resurrected Commander. It was almost as if looking at him was too painful, especially when he considered the fact that he had come back alone.

He had been recovering from the losses nicely upto that point, but the moment he laid optics on Optimus all that progress went right to the Pits, and now it seemed Jazz was even more worse off than before. It worried Hound to see his friend in such a state, and part of him hoped Prime would not try and push Jazz into reconciling for fear that he’d snap completely.

Hound stopped at the door, and glanced back. “Could you promise me one thing?”

“If you want me to go talk to him, I ain’t doin’ it,” came the curt response.

“No, it wasn’t that. Just… promise me you’ll go out tomorrow. The storm should clear by morning and I think the fresh air could do you some good. Please?”

“I’ll… think about it.”

Hound sighed. It was better than nothing. “Alright. Goodnight, Jazz.”

“Night.”

Jazz shifted onto his back once the scout’s footsteps faded away. His visor lit up with a dim blue as he stared up at the ceiling; the high-grade having since long worn off, leaving him restless. He heaved a weary sigh, feeling a little guilty for brushing Hound off when all he’d tried to do was help, but at the same time, he really didn’t want coddling.

Still, he’d made a pretty good suggestion, and Jazz considered taking him up on it as a way to make up for being an aft just then. It was true, he hadn’t stepped outside in a while so maybe the fresh air would do him some good, help him clear his head as it were. Heck, he might just take that thing with him and give it a bit of a polish.

“Hey ‘plex, let me know when light breaks?” he asked the room at large.

“I will, Jazz,” Metroplex replied. “Sleep well.”

Jazz murmured his thanks and curled up facing the glass again, letting the sound of the thunder lull him into an uneasy recharge, while behind him Metroplex shut and sealed the door to the room. Wouldn’t do for anyone to walk in and rouse his current charge from one of his rare bouts of rest. The large, sentient city-former kept a sensor on Jazz throughout the night, even as the storm reached its climax and then started to die out.

=====

Morning arrived with a light grey sky that held the promise of sunshine later on towards the afternoon, but for now bathed the landscape in a paler shade of light. All around Autobot City, mechs began to slowly emerge, moving at an easy pace to their points of duty.

Metroplex brightened the light inside the room where Jazz was and sent a gentle vibration through the couch to wake him up.

“Wake up, Jazz,” he said. “It’s as light as it’s going to get for now.”

Jazz uncurled and stretched, then sat up and drew a hand over his face. “Yeah, thanks, ‘plex.”

“Might I suggest the lake, if you want some solitude once you’re outside.”

“Heh, you in a conspiracy with Hound?”

“Negative. I just think you’ll like the view.”

“Noted.” Jazz looked up suspiciously as he stood. Was it just him or did Metroplex sound just a little too cheerful. “I’ll go check it out.”

The doors unlocked for Jazz to exit, and as with a little help from the city-former’s sensors, was able to make it outside without being stopped for small talk by some mech or the other. A good thing in Jazz’s mind considering he really wasn’t feeling all that chatty lately.

Stepping onto the road, he transformed swiftly and drove off away from Autobot City, following the winding strip of black as it took him towards the lake. The air felt fresh and cool against his sensors eventhough a cloud still hung over his spark, and it made him feel just the little bit lightened despite it.

A light mist was just starting to rise off the surface of the lake when Jazz reached it, and the wisps curled around him as he transformed and walked down to the water’s edge. Drops of dew clung to the foliage all around, giving the landscape a delicate feel to it – as if the previous night’s storm had washed away all blemishes and left everything feeling new and bright.

A flash of color caught his optics, and he looked up to see a rainbow arching across the sky. Something about it, about the promise it held, stirred something within him. He summoned from his subspace a white helm adorned with a red chevron, and as he looked at it, and then back at the rainbow, he felt a power in his vocalizer that he hadn’t felt in a long time.

“Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high… And the dreams that you dreamed of once in a lullaby… Somewhere over the rainbow blue birds fly… And the dreams that you dreamed of… Dreams really do come true,” he sang softly, and looked down at the helm in his hands. “Someday I'll wish upon a star, wake up where the clouds are far behind me… Somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly… And the dream that you dare to, why, oh why can't I?”

A drop of pale pink fluid dripped onto the amber crest between the two ends of the chevron and he let out a soft gasp. This was followed by another drop, and another. Jazz suddenly realized they were coming from him, his optics. He reached up and touched his cheek, then pulled his hand away and stared at the same pink fluid on his fingers. Tears.

“Well I see trees of green and red roses too. I'll watch them bloom for me and you... And I think to myself, what a wonderful world...”

He sank down onto the grass, placing the helm beside him, and hugged his knees to his chest, forcing the words of the song out through the shaky sobs that made his frame tremble slightly. Trickles of pink continued to flow down his cheeks, but he made no move to brush them away. Having kept so much bottled up inside for so long, he needed this release. So he let himself cry for a while.

“The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky, are also on the faces of people passing by. I see friends shaking hands, saying, ‘How do you do?’ They're really saying, I...”

“I love you.”

Jazz raised his head in shock. That voice…

Leaping to his feet he turned and stared at the mech who had come up behind him. No… No it couldn’t be… His visor flashed, as his processors reeled with the new information his optics were sending. The black-and white paint, the sweep of the doors, the red chevron… He looked slightly different in the body frame of a Fairlady 360Z, but there was no mistaking those three key aspects.

“… Prowl?”

“Metroplex said I might enjoy the view out here,” the mech said, coming up to him with a bit of a smile, a very familiar smile. “He was right.”

“But you… how?”

“When Prime opened the Matrix that second time, some of us – the sparks that had not totally moved on yet – were set free. Then it was just a matter of waiting till our bodies were ready.” He reached for the other black-and-white. “I’ve missed you, Jazz.”

Before he realized what he was doing, the saboteur drew back a hand and smacked the former tactician across the face.

“You fragger!” he yelled. “You…! I thought… how could you?!”

Prowl reeled back a step, pressing his fingers to the tiny split caused by Jazz’s blow, then stepped forward again and pulled the other into a tight hug. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry, Jazz.” He stroked the saboteur’s head gently as the other sobbed into his shoulder. “You didn’t deserve all that you went through.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Jazz replied as he tried to compose himself and get a grip on his emotions. “For hittin’ ya.”

“I forgive you.”

“Is it really you? I’m not hallucinatin’ or anythin’ like that?”

“No, my love. It’s really me.” Prowl pulled back a little and looked at Jazz, reaching up to wipe the tears from his face, before cupping a cheek. “Primus, the Matrix was amazing, but it wasn’t right without you there.”

“I missed you so much.” Jazz kept his hold on Prowl, reluctant to let him break contact lest he somehow slip away again.

“I know, but I’m here now. No more tears.” He leaned in and nuzzled his lover gently. “I want to see you happy again. Smile for me?”

The saboteur quirked a lop-sided smile as he returned the nuzzle. “And the dreams that you dreamed of, dreams really do come true,” he sang softly, voice stronger than it had been before.

Prowl smiled. “There’s my Jazz.”

“Was always your Jazz.”

Then he leaned in and kissed the other black-and-white soundly, pouring all his love into that one gesture. Prowl returned it heatedly as they sank down together into the grass, arms wrapping around each other again as their bodies melded and moved together in perfect harmony…

=====

Some time later Prowl lay on the grass, his head and shoulders in Jazz’s lap, one hand tucked behind his head while his other clasped his partner’s black hand. Above them, the rainbow started to fade as the sky grew brighter and the clouds parted, and around them the local fauna started to emerge, but they only had optics for each other.

“I heard you haven’t been recharging well,” Prowl said softly, as he touched Jazz’s cheek with the back of his hand.

“Not particularly,” Jazz admitted, giving Prowl’s hand a gentle squeeze.

“I see.” The mech carefully moved off his lover’s lap and lay back on the grass, then tugged Jazz down beside him. “Come sleep with me now, then.” He pressed a soft kiss to the black helm.

Jazz nestled against him and pillowed his head on Prowl’s shoulder, wrapping an arm around his waist. “You’re comfy,” he murmured. “I love you, Prowl.”

Prowl kissed him tenderly. “I love you, too, Jazz.”

The saboteur made a soft murmur of contentment, slowly lulled to sleep by the feel of Prowl’s fingers lightly stroking his helm, and the sound of his voice in his audio receptors. Prowl watched him as his optics dimmed and powered down, then settled to look back up at the sky, content for now with Jazz in his arms.

“And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.”

~END.

\------  
Now you can do the third pic, Veji.

**Author's Note:**

>   
>  Inspired by these two lovely pictures by [](http://vejiraziel.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://vejiraziel.livejournal.com/)**vejiraziel**
> 
> First the pics: [Bitter](http://community.livejournal.com/martinicruiser/58124.html) [Sweet](http://community.livejournal.com/martinicruiser/58701.html)


End file.
